Macpharlane when he lay in his power, as he had shown courage and martial skill in the siege.

"And so this squyer amorous

Seigit and won the ladies house,
And left therein a capitane,
Then to Strathern returned agane,
Quhare that he by his fair ladie
Receivit was full pleasantlie."*

In the midst of this solace, there occurs a sudden and melancholy change, which is thus sweetly introduced by Lindsay

"Of warldlie joy it is weill kenn'd
That sorrow bene the fatal end;
For jealousy and false envy
Did him persew richt cruellie.
I marvel not tho it be so,

For they were ever lovers' foe."

Stirling of Keir, a cruel knight, who possessed an estate near this lady's castle, in Strathern, had, it seems, determined that a gentleman of his acquaintance should marry her, and, disappointed in his hopes, by the arrival of Squire Meldrum, he lays a cowardly plot for his destruction. Accordingly, when about to cross the ferry between Leith and Fife, on his return from Edinburgh, where he had been called by business, he finds himself beset by his mortal enemy, with a party of sixty men. Yet, although only eight servants were in his company, such is his indomitable valour, that he disdains to fly; and, after a desperate contest, is left for dead on the field, bathed in his blood, and

* Poems, vol. ii. p. 289.

almost cut to pieces by unnumbered wounds. Anthony D'Arcy, Seigneur de la Bastie, a French knight of great valour and accomplishment, was, at this moment, lieutenant or sub-governor of Scotland, appointed by the Duke of Albany, then regent. He happened to be passing with his suite near the spot where the unfortunate Meldrum had been left by his cruel assailants, and, instantly ordering a pursuit, and personally engaging in it, he apprehended the assassin, and had him lodged in ward before a few hours had elapsed. Before, however, the trial came on, he was himself most cruelly waylaid and murdered, by Hume of Wedderburn; and Meldrum, who now slowly recovered from his wounds, had the mortification to see his mortal enemy liberated from confinement, and to hear that his lovely mistress had been compelled to marry, in spite of the strongest resistance on her side. When the squire lay so grievously wounded in his lodging, the wisest physicians in the country are described as flocking unsought to give him their advice; and, so ably did he profit by their attendance and instructions, that, in the course of his recovery, he himself became an expert leech," and greatly benefited the poor by . prescribing for them.

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"The greatest leeches of the land
Came to him all without command,
And all practikis on him provit,
Because he was sa weill belovit ;
They took on hand his life to save,

And he them gave what they would have;

But he sa lang lay into pane,

He turned to be ane chirurgiane;

And als by his natural ingyne,1
He learnd the art of medicine.
He saw them on his bodye wrocht,
Quarefor the science was dearlie bought.
But afterward when he was haill
He sparit na cost, nor yet travail,
To prove his prackticks on the pure,
And on them workit many a cure." *

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Greatly weakened in his constitution by his wounds, but bearing a high reputation, not only for warlike experience, but civil wisdom, Meldrum was courted by an aged lord, who delighted in his company, and prevailed on to become his chief marshal, and auditor of his accounts." He was also made sheriff-depute of Fife, and proved not only an equal judge and generous friend to the poor, but, from his wonderful knowledge of medicine, he delighted in visiting those who were sick or wounded, and distributing to all his advice and his medicines without recompense. The conclusion shows, in a very pleasing manner, his faithfulness to those vows which he had so solemnly made to his betrothed mistress in Strath

ern:

"Then each year, for his lady's sake,
A banquet royal he would make,
With wild fowl, venison, and wine,
With tart, and flam, and frutage fine;
Of bran or geill there was no scant,
And Ippocras he wald not want.
I have seen sitting at his tabill
Lords and lairdis honorabill,

With knightis and mony a gay squyar,
Which were too lang for to declair;

With mirth, musick, and minstrelsy.
All this he did for his ladie,
And for her sake, during his life,
Wad never be weddid til ane wife.
And when he did decline to age
He faillit neer of his courage.
Of ancient stories for to tell,
Above all uther he did precell;
So that everilk creature

To hear him speak took great pleasure."

After some years this illustrious squire was seized with a mortal illness, and expired at the Struther in Fife, the castle of his noble friend and patron, the Earl of Crawfurd. During his sickness, however, he had leisure to write his testament, which has been thrown into verse by Sir David Lindsay, with much spirit and beauty. It is a remarkable production, and, independent of its poetical merit, which is of a high kind, may be studied with advantage as an authentic picture of a dying warrior of those times. It breathes, from beginning to end, the soul of chivalry. First, we have the squire's acknowledgment of the instability and brevity of all human existence. My body, says he, is now weak; I plainly feel I am about to pay my debt to Nature; but I here resign to God my spirit, which he hath made immortal.

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'My spreit hartlie I recommend,

In manus tuas, Domine;

My hope to thee is to ascend,

Rex quia redimisti me.

From sin resurrexisti me,

Or else my saul had been forlorn!

With sapience docuisti me

Blest be the hour that thou wast born."

Having declared his faith and trust in God, he

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proceeds to nominate three noble lords, all of the name of Lindsay, to be his executors;-David, Earl of Crawfurd, John, Lord Lindsay, his master special," and Sir Walter Lindsay, Lord St. John, a noble travelled knight. "I do so," says he, "because the surname of Lindsay never failed to the crown, and will never fail to me." His injunctions now become minute. Dispose," says he, of my wealth to my next of kin, according to your pleasure. It is well known I was never addicted to heaping or hoarding. I cared no more for gold than for glass. And ye, my dear friends, who are my relatives by blood, fail not, I beseech you, to be present at my funeral feast. Ye know how magnanimously I have defended that family fame which is dear to us all. As to the disposal of my body, it is my command that ye first disembowell it, and, having washed it well with wine, enclose it in a costly carved shrine of cedar or cyprus, anointing it with delicious balm, cinnamon, and the most precious spices."

"In cases twain, of gold and precious stones,
Enshrine my heart and tongue right craftily,
Then raise a monument above my bones
In holy abbaye, plac'd triumphantly;
Of marble blocks insculptur'd curiously;
Therein my coffin and my dust enclose,
Within these solemn precincts to repose."

There succeeds a curious specimen of the general belief in judicial astrology in these times. It is certain,' says the squire, "that the constellations of Mars, Venus, and Mercury, presided over my nativity. To their influence I owe my fame in foreign lands. Wherefore," says he,